Public hearing on Maryland school cellphone policy changes set for Wednesday

Kiersten Hacker, The Baltimore Sun on Dec 17, 2024

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BALTIMORE — The Howard County Board of Education will hold a public hearing Wednesday on proposed revisions to the student cellphone use policy.

Members of the public can sign up to testify at the hearing, which will be held in the county Department of Education building at 7 p.m. and streamed online. Participants can register by phone by calling 410-313-7194 or through an online form. Registration closes at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday.

The public hearing comes after the school board was slated to vote on work group recommendations at its Nov. 21 meeting. Instead, the board opted to vote to hold a public hearing for more input and have the policy committee conduct a review. According to the Howard County Public School System website, the board is scheduled to vote on the matter on Jan. 16.

During a June school board meeting, HCPSS Superintendent Bill Barnes said cellphone usage was teachers’ top concern when speaking with them during school visits. The HCPSS personal device policy came under review, with an advisory workgroup convening in July to conduct research and present recommendations to the board and superintendent.

After community conversations, a public hearing, a survey and engagement with school staff and other groups, the workgroup, led by HCPSS Director of Communications and Engagement Brian Bassett, presented its recommendations to the board in November.

“The really difficult thing with this is we didn’t have the gold standard to look at,” Bassett said at the Nov. 21 meeting. “I talked to school districts in Maryland and many other states, and I was on the phone with my counterparts in other places and I never heard, ‘Just do this. If you just do this we’ve nailed it.”

Policy changes suggested by the workgroup included no cellphone use for elementary and middle school students between the first and last bell of the day. All personal devices for students in these age groups would have to be silenced and stored away.

High school students would need to keep devices away and silenced during class time but could use them at other times throughout the day under the recommended policy amendments. Laptops and Chromebooks would be permitted for use by high school students only for instructional purposes, not for recording audio or video or for playing games.

The recommendations would also make adjustments to outline specific consequences, including confiscation, when students break the rules for permitted use.

Some schools, such as Reservoir High, Howard High and Mayfield Woods Middle had already implemented new regulations regarding cellphone use with success, Barnes said, encouraging school staff to work with administrators to learn from the others in the district.

“And while there are growing pains, that’s what they are, just growing pains,” Barnes said at the Nov. 21 meeting.

Board members raised concerns that the recommendations for policy changes didn’t go through the usual regulatory process, calling for a public hearing and policy committee review. Some also discussed their desire for stricter rules for high school students that are consistent with the younger grades or the need to balance regulations with teaching responsible use.

The public hearing and following vote scheduled for January will occur with two new members of the board after the departure of Robyn Scates, District 1, and Yun Lu, District 5. Meg Ricks and Andrea Chamblee won the District 1 and 5 seats, respectively, in this year’s general election and were sworn in on Dec. 2.

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